Chapter 5

- An Effort to Explain the Process of Body Formation

As I have described earlier, the territory population of the selfish slime molds, consisting of
biological individuals, after the level rise into an altruistic state and re forming a slug that is a
biological individual and, hence selfish.

Hence, the selfish cells in the territory are thus being replaced by a selfish slug. One would
express it that the sum of selfishness during that level rise is constant. But something
analogue would also be said about the altruism of the cells of phase two: the sum of altruism
of the slug cells can possibly be assumed to be equal to the selfishness of the slug but of
opposite value. (The problem is then only that it is difficult to think of any method th
quantitatively measure selfishness respectively altruism.).

That would maybe be expressed more generally: The selfishness of every biological
individual can be assumed to balance the altruism of all its parts. An evident conclusion of
that would be that altruism without a corresponding selfishness could not exist and vice versa.
Totally, the reasoning would imply an image of balance. And according to my reasoning,
altruism should be an equally essential part of nature as selfishness. It is an inevitable part of
the construction of every biological individual.

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An effort to make definitions

• Selfishness is a necessary property of biological individuals on every level.

• Altruism, or its equivalent, of cells of normal bodies, is a necessary property of nonbiological
individuals of every level and that belongs as parts to a biological individual
of higher order and which are ruled by its superior function. These non-biological
individuals are only indirectly subject to the environmental pressure, mediated by the
biological individual of higher order.

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The hypothesis of equilibrium between selfishness and altruism gives an opportunity to
further develop the conceptual understanding of what happens in the interval between phase
one and phase two. One may assume that as the latent altruism is growing within the territory
population, on the higher level latent selfishness is growing simultaneously with the new
selfish identity
When the collapse of the cells has become total and their selfishness thereby has been set to
zero, a change will take place. The new, selfish identity will be established on the higher level
and the cells become altruistic and ruled. The level rise has been completed.

Hence, the latent altruism can not be regarded isolated from the corresponding latent
selfishness on the higher level; that follows from the equilibrium hypothesis. Here equilibrium
must rule.

It is hence the fundamental properties of the cell, selfishness and the reproductive ability that
arise on the higher level. But it only the fundamental properties, the properties of the
hypothetical “first molecule” that prevail; everything else that has been added during the
development of the cell, e.g. the territory period, remain at the cell during the level rise. At the
slime molds is hereafter the behaviour successively being changed. The slug begins from zero
as I have mentioned earlier and it creates the properties of its own, which the cells are unable
to perceive.